Video Tip: Working with bad video

Technology keeps coming up with ways consumers and businesses can record their own video. Everything from the mighty Flip-type units to Smartphones now allow people to capture events with the push of a button. When used properly, these tiny cameras can yield great results. Unfortunately this isn’t always the case. We’re often presented with shaky, blurry, noisy footage that clients want us to use in productions. There’s a big misconception that video post production houses have a magic setting that can fix everything from fuzzy pictures to crackling sound. As much as we wish this existed, it doesn’t. The good news is we have lots of ways to use weak video.

The best recommendation is to simply make the video smaller. When you restrict the size of the video playback window, it will often hide recording flaws. But we don’t stop there, we take the smaller clip, place it on a full sized, branded background and tack on a strong call-to-action.  If the clip is shared on a video site like YouTube, the branding/CTA stays with the video.  All the text and blue background are a permanent part of the video (bottom photo).

The video was captured with the camera too far from the stage. There's little value showing this clip in a full sized window.

Here we have the same size video but the actual clip plays much smaller. We've used the added space to brand the clip and add a strong call-to-action.

Of course we have many tools to make bad audio and video better but it often burns up many hours in the edit suite. As with any content, it’s important to identify when it’s just too awful to use. In those situations, we’ll suggest transcribing the information and delivering it in an alternate ways such as a voice over with slides or re-recording the content in a more controlled environment.

Do you plan on using a FlipCam or SmartPhone  to record and upcoming event?  Here’s a link to a blog post we did a while back on getting great results with small cameras.
http://duchinproductions.com/2009/12/10-tips-to-make-your-webcam-look-great/

Should you want to skip doing the recordings yourself, we’re always here to do it for you.